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BACKGROUND: Diarrhoea is the second leading cause of death in children under five years
old, and is responsible for killing around 760,000 children every year. The recommended
management for diarrhea according to WHO is to give oral rehydration therapy, appropriate
homemade fluid with, fluid replacement beginning at home and administered by the caregiver at
the start of the diarrhea episode. Proper home management can reduce morbidity and mortality
due to diarrhoea.
OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence, health care seeking behavior and factors
associated with home management of diarrhoea among caregivers with children aged 2-59
months old, attending health facilities in Moshi urban
METHODOLOGY: This was a cross sectional study from December 2015 to April 2016. It
was carried out at KCMC Hospital, St Joseph Hospital, Majengo and Pasua Health Centre’s. We
included all children aged 2-59months presenting with diarrhea. A questionnaire was used for
data collection and data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 22)
software. Continuous variables were summarized using median and interquartile range.
Descriptive statistics was used to summarize data on health care seeking behavior. Odds ratio
was used to assess the strength of association and p-value of <0.05 was taken as statistical
significant.
RESULTS:A total of 279 children were enrolled in the study. The proportion of caregivers who
gave ORS or SSS was 42.7% and 18.3% respectively. Majority of the children continued
breastfeeding during the diarrhoea episode (59.9%). Most (47.7%) of the children were given
ORS/SSS/ both ORS and SSS as an initial treatment for diarrhoea while some (11.5%) were
taken to health facilities. Few of the children (5.4%) were given antibiotics. Vomiting, diarrhoea
duration of more than 3 days and past history of diarrhoea were associated with ORS provision at
home.
CONCLUSION: The study highlights that home management of diarrhoea is still poor. Further
emphasis should be put on educating mothers/caregivers on the importance of using ORS/SSS as
initial intervention at home during diarrhoea episodes as well as increasing of feedings during
diarrhoea. |
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